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(For some reason, the resolution when embedded on the DA webpage is cruddy... If you download the original file it should be in the intended resolution.)

An alternate history scenario I devised some time ago, which I posted over on alternatehistory.com as Huehuecoyotl. I've re-uploaded here for posterity. This timeline has a somewhat vague point of divergence from our own, sometime in the medieval period, wherein the Italian peninsula is struck by a local epidemic which leaves large parts of its heartland depopulated. Good Imperial Greeks from Hellas and Anatolia resettle it over the following decades. A little later, in the 9th century, Constantinople is conquered by the Rus' and the Empire's eastern territories gradually slough off, leaving Italy (once again) the heart of the Roman Empire. The eventual consequence is a somewhat more powerful Muslim world, albeit stronger in the west while having no success in the Indian subcontinent. The European powers that eventually coalesce are somewhat less globally dominant, resulting in a multipolar 21st century world with no defined superpowers and a lot of regional ones.

Since there was no room for the key to the annotations on the map itself, they are listed numerically below:

Uniting in the 18th century from a smattering of Lusitanian, Spanian, and Tolosan colonies, the Union of the South (its residents call themselves unienhos) swiftly expanded across the continent, à la Bolivar, absorbing smaller revolutionary movements in adjacent colonies. In spite of all odds (and some sectional trouble along the way), it persisted and blossomed during the 20th century into a world power par excellence, the nearest thing this timeline has to a true superpower. Today it's a neoliberal powerhouse and infernal meddler in all things around it, but one has to love the films, food, and music they make.
Starting around the turn of the 19th century, rumors of gold, coal and other mineral wealth in the sub-arctic regions prompted a rush for the high latitudes. Understandably, this mostly meant imperialist chicanery in *Canada and *Siberia, but in the spirit of the times, the young Union sailed south to plant the flag on the Antarctic Peninsula, mostly otherwise leaving it alone until modern times, when scientific expeditions became more common. This continent, which is here known as "Australia", remains a recognized unienho territory. Burgondia's "Australian Territory", comprising of Kerguelen, Heard, McDonald et al. is kind of a shabby imitation... but at least people can live there sometimes.
Vineland, a small collection of former Bridish colonies, has tried hard over the decades but now must come to terms with playing a permanent second fiddle to its big southern neighbor. Agriculture (legal and otherwise) is the big business with mining a close second, and the population is mostly mixed, Saxon, native, and east Asian (primarily Korean). Increasingly it is leaning on unienho cooperation in dealing with its northern neighbors. Not-so-secretly, it covets the canal zone, currently extranational territory after a spat with Atlantis in the 1980s.
One of these Muslim satellite states is not like the others. This Salian colony had a lot of setbacks relating to tropical diseases in its history, prompting the mother country to import "voluntary" settlers from its Sahel territories. Those of Salian descent have mostly left, leaving only the colony's name behind as a legacy. In this young republic, heavily influenced by the Three Sultanates, there's some debate over what to change its moniker to.
Settled in times of old by Andalusi refugees, like its other neighbors Qadisah leans on the Three Sultanates for protection from the cultural pressure of the infidels to the south.
Alzamarad has made a good name for itself on the international jewelry market over the years, and has tried (with moderate success) to leverage that wealth to improve its lot. By and large, the populace remains fairly poor, but surveys consistently find Alzamarad to be the most optimistic country in the Antilles.
Meanwhile, in the most pessimistic country in the Antilles, pirates run amok, harried by increasingly annoyed Vinelander coast guard units. A general lack of political structures left behind upon independence in this fellow former Bridish colony has prompted almost half a century of short presidencies, military putsches, and general instability. Intervention from the regional powers seems more likely by the day.
Though spanning north into the high arctic and west to the limits of the Bering Sea, more than 80% of the population of this former Salian colony lives somewhere in the vicinity of this number marker. Resource-rich Willemsland is another product of the race for the poles in the 19th century, but despite its size remains mostly a bit player on the Antillean stage.
Here one finds Ochibwa, one of only two native nations still to be found in the Antilles. Succeeding in playing the colonial powers against one another, by and large, it persisted long enough to win for itself a fairly lenient period of Burgondian dominion before shedding it during the 20th century. Today Ochibwa vocally champions the cause of Native Antilleans all over the continent, particularly in South Fluvia.
Potentially the strongest remnant of Burgondia's former colonial empire, New Campania (in fact, named after Champagne, not for the place in the Mezzogiorno which itself gave Champagne its name) is a relatively prosperous nation with a powerful financial sector and close links across the Atlantic. Once almost a nuclear power, it dismantled its program after the test ban treaties went into action in the late 1970s. Now that Atlantis has gone ahead and joined the nuclear club anyway, New Campania is feeling a little sour. And also a little scared, just like everyone else on the continent.
Once a closely-knit dominion of Lusitania, Ocaso opted for a Republic over a Kingdom and went its own way, among separatist sentiments at home and concerns in *Porto about the tail wagging the proverbial dog. Now a great regional power, it seeks a leading role in dealing with the Fluvia situation in the east and Atlantis in the south, though the other powers of the Antilles aren't terribly moved by these overtures.
Once united as a mighty dominion of Salia, independence treated Fluvia poorly. A polarizing first election season and stuffed ballot boxes led to a civil war. Fluvia split into a Conalist (communist) north, poor and sprawling, and a gloomy south with something akin to apartheid in store for its native inhabitants. Caught awkwardly between, there's a rogue province which neither will move upon for fear of provoking the other. This situation, which began in the 1990s, seems no closer to a resolution, and is, on balance, considered an embarrassment for the other powers of the continent.
Unlike its sister Ocaso on the other side of North Antillea, Sacramenta remains a closely welded dominion and Kingdom within the Lusitanian crown. This flourishing country has a healthy manufacturing sector in its north and an extant plantation culture in the south (with all the uncomfortable history that implies).
As if taking a cue from their neighbors in Fluvia, the former Burgondian colonies of the Great Lakes also threw out their capitalist class, albeit opting for anarcho-syndicalism rather than Conalism. To the surprise (and apprehension) of its neighbors, it hasn't collapsed yet, and is in fact doing pretty alright, aside from some tensions between the urban workers and the collective farmers to be found within its territory. Occasionally, the Communes trade fishy looks with their big, red neighbor to the west; trust is at a premium in these parts.
The so-called "Land of Hope", this quiet peninsula was left aside by the Lusitanians decades ago for refugees of violence in China, whose descendants comprise a plurality of its population, with the remainder mostly being mixed. Dirt poor, but it beats being caught in civil wars back home.
Centuries ago, the P'urépecha of Michoacán fought the long-dead Mexica of Tenochtitlan to a stand-still, eventually reducing their proud Triple Alliance to a tributary and gradually becoming the hegemon of the region which Europeans would come to call Atlantis. Then came the Francien with guns and horses, subjugating, but not truly conquering, Tzintzuntzan. Christian ways were brought, though not necessarily absorbed, only making surface-level changes to the old rites of the region. A bloody war for independence wracked Atlantis for almost a decade in the 18th century, ending with the natives reasserting their right to self-rule once again. Ever since, this rather rowdy and militaristic power has gone its own way and has scared the hell out of everybody in the neighborhood in the process.
Somehow even scarier is the Kingdom of the Conscience, once a sleepy Francien colony, now an island held in the iron grip of a drug cartel turned narco-death cult. Originally a fairly ordinary republic with a mestizo population and a plantation economy, drug traffic from the Isles of Frie and other internal factors led to something of a collapse in recent years. Its elite alternately chase the next high or the "Great Awakening" of all beings, while the populace remains scared almost literally to death. Union of the South bombing action pending in 3, 2, 1...
Just over the channel in Hispaniola, the Republic of Francisca, a close cousin to the inhabitants of the blighted kingdom to the west, watches developments in concern while the tourism money dries up.
Gutlan's little Caribbean getaway, mercifully protected from these increasingly unfriendly seas by patrols of the unienho navy.
Don't let the name fool you - the Egyptian government in Fustat is running this show. The triple-sultan, Caliph, and Commander of the Faithful dwells here most of the time, though summer homes in Aghmat and Tunis can also be held to his name. While the Caliph makes nice speeches and visits foreign courts, the Chamber of Emirs keeps things moving in fact, juggling countless balls in Africa, Europe, and the Antilles. Without question, the Three Sultanates are the big fish of the Sunni Muslim world, and probably a close second to the Union of the South in terms of global reach and military power. The two powers are not necessarily ideologically opposed, but proximity breeds friction, as is the case in the Muslim states of South Antillea. As long as the Conalist scourge remains active in Africa, however, an alliance of convenience must continue to exist.
Attached to the Sultanates in all but name, these Saharan and Sahelian nations seen here exist at the core of the Sultanates' resource extraction system, bringing much needed mineral resources and cheap labor. Around this number marker, especially, are found their most reliable sources of uranium...
Squeezed between the spheres of influence of the Three Sultanates and Aden, accommodations have been made to keep the Arabized Nubian nation of Al-Urdi (un)comfortably outside of both. That said, the Arabs along the Nile in the north long for the wealth and power of Egypt, while the Cushitic and Nilotic peoples of the south wonder if they wouldn't be better off with Aden.
The Roman Empire never gave much serious consideration to colonization, absorbed with European affairs as it was, and not geographically well positioned besides. Nevertheless, in a corner of West Africa looked over by Franciè and Burgondia, they found a prospective stopping post for ships and an inlet for Antillean and African trade. In this they didn't particularly succeed, the ports of Theotokia (named for the Virgin, naturally) failing to draw ships that other harbors in the region weren't already enticing. Independent today, mostly due to disinterest from Rome (which still holds the nearby Cape Verde islands), Theotokia is nevertheless still highly dependent on its economic connections to Italia.
Called by some the dark horse of Africa, the Conalist state of Binin is growing economically and in population at the fastest rate of any nation in the continent. Despite the mostly similar political philosophies held in their capitals, there are odd looks between Binin and the UFCC, the latter finding the market allowances of its northern comrade not quite in the spirit of the great communist project. Population projections for the coming century also make the UFCC nervous, because it's believed by some that their country will soon be outnumbered by the teeming masses of Binin...
In the central African state of Tshao, a Conalist rebellion burns in the country's southwest, threatening to overburden the country at any time. Only proximity to Binin stays the hand of the Three Sultanates, which are seeking more creative ways of dissolving this particular crisis...
In other times, the state of Felicienn, true to its name, would be quite happy with its relative stability and positive economic motion. With two communist juggernauts on either side, though, this country is practically screaming for help from the Union of the South and the Three Sultanates. Anything, to keep the property values in this neighborhood from dropping any more!
Joining Felicienn in its discomfort is Lwoia, bristling with cruise missiles and ready at any moment to push the UFCC out of the African Great Lakes region, if only the prospect of nuclear annihilation wasn't stopping them. This little kingdom bides its time and welds itself to Aden's economic sphere.
As its name might betray, this Sultanate had its start across the Bab-el-Mandeb as an Arab principality. After absorbing the Horn of Africa and centuries of intermingling, however, the African part of the sultanate's much faster growth has caused an overall change to a Cushitic sort of character, even in the original Arab heartland. Scientifically advanced and economically mighty, the southern coast of Aden's Somalian provinces are host to multiple space centers, and discoveries of fossilized human ancestors in its highlands have amazed the scientific community. It heads an economic union of East African states including Lwoia, Ziwa, and Zania among other minor members.
The great red goliath itself, the UFCC. African history in the 20th century was shaped by the rise of this state. Inspired by the writings of economic philosopher Agosto Conal, the Lusitanian colonies of southern Africa fought for their independence as a united front, and stuck together after the dust had settled. This has proven anything but an easy prospect, and internal regional politics in the UFCC (Unián Feteral de Comunas Conalistas) are a circus of unmitigated proportions. Regardless, it has mostly managed to direct its energy outward and remain stable since the 1940s. As new revolutions have been inspired worldwide in the past few decades by its success, however, the UFCC has continued to doubt its future, and a general relaxing of central government authority has made it an open question whether it will go on as one country, or as several...
As much as Zania’s president-for-life would like for it to be East Africa's greatest power, for now this nation is hitched to Aden's wagon, and is unlikely to come loose anytime soon. Zania, a tinpot dictatorship traditionally, has been liberalizing, but has little more than ecotourism and a modest navy going for it. They blame the communists for their misfortune, naturally.
Correction: the communists and Oman.
We arrive on European shores in Lusitania, historically one of the strongest colonial powers of the continent, second only to Burgondia. Much of North Antillea, southern Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia were once part of their sphere, but by the 1960s, with the independence of Ocaso, the bulk of their dominions were gone. In a sense, however, they are better off than Burgondia in the aftermath, maintaining strong links with most of their former colonies and retaining Sacramenta as a kingdom within the Lusitanian crown. The big, black marks on its legacy include a rather active role in the Atlantic slave trade, and bringing about the current primacy of the UFCC in Africa, which has bred resentment toward Lusitania on that continent. Its one-time rival Spania is today fused at the hip with Lusitania, the two nations and the bulk of their former possessions loosely aligned in the "Iberophone Community".
The tide of this timeline's Reconquista ended, functionally, with a stalemate in the 14th century, the armies of the Maghreb securing for all time the survival of al-Andalus in the form of the emirates of Tariqiyya and Fudimiriyya. These small kingdoms have never escaped the shadow of their benefactor, but are mostly happy with their lot. With the age of religious intolerance long gone, there are strong links with the Christian nations of Iberia, and families even straddle both sides of the border. The Three Sultanates are tolerating discussions about these two countries entering the Iberophone Community... But with conditions.
After entering the colonial game and flopping in the 1600s, Tolosa receded forever to the status of the poorest and least powerful nation of Gaul, while Franciè and Burgondia went from strength to strength. Nowadays a quiet social democracy with some quite poor rural areas, it has led calls for some form of Gallic Union between itself and its northern neighbors due to their similar languages and shared history. Of course, the fact that it by far has the most to gain, and they the most to lose, has led these calls, for the most part, to fall upon deaf ears. Should that fall through, of course, Tolosa is prepared to make the same plea to the Iberophone Community...
It follows logically that Europe's four nuclear club members (Lusitania, Burgondia, Bridain and Litoania) are also considered its great powers. In western Europe, Burgondia clearly leads this bunch, now as in previous centuries. Once the master of northeastern North America, parts of West Africa and the East Indies, and nearly all of Oceania, it was a premier mercantile and naval power in the Atlantic, and Europe's most populous territory, for a time. Aside from a relatively clean disengagement from the Americas, however, its colonial legacy elsewhere has left something of a stain on national pride, leading to a lot of soul-searching in this century. Though no longer a great power outside of its own region, it still leads the continent in science and culture.
This island is a good deal more Saxon than OTL, and shares a lot linguistically with nearby Salia. England remained, as always, the predominant force of the region, with a more or less permanent union of Great Britain arriving in the 16th century. At first focusing its endeavors in Ireland and northern South Antillea, its trade interests in the White Sea region eventually found it setting up shop there and focusing on North Asia as its link to the East. Although it's diminished, it still controls the most territory outside of Europe out of any European power and there are strong *Anglophone communities on a handful of continents.
The story here is depressingly familiar. Let's move on.
Issland is happily divorced from the continuing troubles in Scandinavia. Sort of like in OTL, they are not poised to be a major force, even regionally, and have mostly turned inward as a result. But they have Greenland as a bonus, so I guess that's nice.
Welding the Low Countries into one nation was never an easy process, but by the early 1660s, the situation had sort of stuck. An economic powerhouse thenceforward, Salia once had colonies on four continents, but even today it remains the strongest country in Europe outside of the "big four".
CITROM (abbreviated for something along the lines of "Central European Economic Treaty Organization" in local parlance) has surprised the continent by strengthening rather than weakening over time. Historically a stomping ground for other powers after the dissolution of the Karling Empire, with the most recent conflict on its territory being in the 1890s, a desire for common defense and economic parity has driven these nations together. One could almost call it the closest thing this timeline has seen to "German unification", if thoroughly Slavic Sorbia wasn't also part of the show, and if Salia wasn’t absolutely disinterested. Nevertheless, a "closer union" is not necessarily out of the picture in the coming years.
It's worth focusing on this little member-state of CITROM momentarily. Developing in a manner analogous to OTL's Hanseatic League, the city-states of northern Germany formed a powerful trade consortium which challenged Bridish White Sea ambitions for a long time, and also held a near-trade monopoly in the Caribbean for a few decades in the 1600s. Now politically united, they still hold disproportionate power in CITROM thanks to owning the Kiel Canal and all of Germany's best ports, though Bavaria is increasingly acting as a counterweight.
It seems a little absurd on the face of it that the Roman Empire, allegedly the oldest continuous political entity on the planet, could not be one of Europe's great powers. This has been true, however, since at least the 11th century, and though a united Italian peninsula is nothing to sneeze at, being challenged by the Three Sultanates from across the sea and by powers in Gaul and Iberia always kept it constrained. The peninsula these days is a sort of Greek almost from the Po to Sicily, but the Latin influence on the language and culture is strong. There is some sort of irony to be found in this, given that the Rigatul Ruman, a Vlach state (thus speaking a Romance language) resides in the heart of ancient Hellas, but this scarcely registers to this timeline's inhabitants. Roman-ness, in the 21st century just like the dozens preceding it, remains a flexible thing. The Emperor resides in Rome (of course) but the Senate is in Ravenna, and these days (much like in the days before Augustus) holds the real power in the Empire again.
Actually inhabited by Oghuz Turks since the 1200s, and Buddhist ones at that.
The Avars have lived on and now reside in this rather comfortable real estate. The Balkans are fairly quiet and peaceful in this timeline.
Hey, look, this one's name is still the same. The centuries have not sufficed to extricate the Bulgarians from the former Roman province of Moesia, but they never did reach quite the same heights with an aggressive Ruskia on their front doorstep.
"danube legions strong come to graecia! italy greeks fake, vlachs real romans 1000 year!" - A comment on this timeline's equivalent of YouTube, probably.
After evicting the Romans from Constantinople in the 860s, the Rus' clung stubbornly to their new possession. The Themes of Anatolia became minor military despotates which resisted fiercely for a long time, but given the choice between the nominally Christianizing Rus' and the encroaching Abbasid Caliphate, they eventually swallowed their pride, with the last, Trebizond, surrendering to the Rus' in 1077. Ruskia once expanded into the Balkans as well, but these European conquests were only ever ephemeral, and by the 1700s were gone forever. Ruskia remains a minor regional power.
In the east of Europe lies great Litoania. Christianized in the 1200s by English missionaries, a lack of strong powers in European Russia or on the Eurasian Steppe enabled its continual expansion east. Litoanian rule has always been laissez faire, its tolerance of non-Christian minorities (Muslims in the northern Caucasus, Jews and Buddhists on the steppe) has enabled it to weld some rather disparate territories to itself. Today a federal republic and Europe's largest country, the vast plains of European Russia, along with bountiful mineral resources, have enabled Litoania to remain bounds ahead in population and technology for much of Europe's modern history. Undoubtedly, it is today Europe's greatest power, capable of standing alongside the Three Sultanates, the Union of the South, and the Hindee Raajy. It’s also home to a near-majority of the world’s Jewish population, which resides in great numbers along the Volga.
This Litoanian republic by the side of the Black Sea is called "Magyarország".
Since a major local war in the 1930s, Scandinavia has been picking up the pieces. Although Litoania and Bridain stepped in then to put an end to the religious-ethnic conflict taking place there, it has never quite finished recovering. The situation with two rival governments sitting in opposite ends of Sverga is sadly fairly common for this region, considered the most unstable in Europe.
Gutlan remains an island of stability in Scandinavia, and today is famous for its high-quality educational TV programs for young children.
Suomi has always been the strongest power in this area, with the last period of Nordic domination there being far back in the Middle Ages. It has alternatively fallen into the Litoanian or Bridish orbit during the modern era, but now is trying to exert its own weight and finally put a lid on the Swedish situation.
All told, somewhat bigger and more populous than our Armenia. This one is still under the Bagratuni dynasty and is a flawed (but progressing) democracy.
Technically the successor state to the Abbasid Empire. The last Abbasid caliph was ousted in 1922, leading to the transition of their rump empire into a social democracy, à la OTL Sweden. The pretenders to the Abbasid caliphate remain in the Hedjaz on a healthy pension, sighing wistfully over what used to be. With the Abbasid decline from relevance, the de facto and de jure leader of the Sunni world remains the triple-sultan in Fustat. The UASR (United Arab Social Republic) is about half-Sunni, half-Shi'a, but sectarian tension is rare. Currently, the UASR's big project is to (finally!) construct the Suez Canal with Three Sultanates cooperation and do away with the aging set of Nile-dependent canals currently doing the job.
Although closely linked to the Three Sultanates, Hedjaz's distinction as the guardian of the holy places affords it a little more independence than many of the Sultanates' close neighbors. It's among the more conservative nations of the Muslim world, but by no means quite as extreme as OTL Saudi Arabia, thanks to the moderating influence of the UASR universities where most Hedjazi nobility wind up for their education.
Aden's eternal rival for control of the Indian Ocean trade, Oman, has not entered the 21st century quite as strongly. Although still a going force and occasional nuisance for its neighbor, it has lost its influence in southern India and much of East Asia which once gave it such great leverage. Nevertheless, it still holds onto Zanzibar and has strong links with a few European nations and the Panthalassic Ocean. The Qarmatians held the country for a long time in the Middle Ages, gradually eroding the hold of the Ibadi imams and leaving modern Oman a Shi'a state. Accordingly, it's a little more conservative than OTL, especially in contrast with spacefaring Aden, but it hardly shuns progress.
By far the biggest change in Southwest Asia over the last few generations is the rise of Erān into regional prominence. Already unified and relatively stable by the start of the 20th century, the expansion of Erāni companies into Central Asia has opened economic doors for the Shi'a empire which have enabled it to politically dominate the minor Turkic states of the region as well. Greater control of its own national industries, particularly oil, as well as a general decline of the surrounding powers, has allowed this seeming miracle which has set Erān to be one of the fastest-growing economic forces of the 21st century. Although it would never admit it publicly, due to the tense climate surrounding Atlantis's nuclear tests which flaunted international law in recent years, Erān longs to seal the deal and become a great power by joining the nuclear club in its own right.
The defection by plebiscite of this former Litoanian state (mostly Shi'a Muslim) to Erān in 2008 was the event that made armchair geographers and analysts the world over sit up and wonder whether old and storied Persia was on the rise once again. 5 years on, it's still nominally independent, not quite yet ready to integrate fully into the Erāni political framework.
Too small to resist the Erāni cultural orbit, but too Buddhist to stomach integrating outright. The Persians and Pashtuns have a common, Aryan destiny, says the Erāni government in Ispahan...
Given the choice between a Shi'a rock and a Hindu hard place, the Buddhist population of Kashimeera will reluctantly choose the latter.
It's anyone's guess as to how long the republics of Central Asia will maintain their independence. Although not of Iranian descent, they are sparsely populated and contain potential untapped resources.
Still by far the great power of the subcontinent, the Hindee Raajy has lost some of its luster in recent years. Despite herculean efforts, the vast bulk of its population remains rather poor, and certain regional magnates are becoming increasingly uncooperative. Still, there are plans in store for any unfortunate eventualities in the capital at *Agra. Big plans indeed...
The Raja of Bengal is getting a little too big for his britches. This heavily industrialized region is starting to throw its weight around within the union and forcing the central government (for now) to play along to its tune.
This Conalist rebellion may soon force the Hindee Raajy to step in directly. And if Dhakshina becomes another autonomous region of that nation in the process, then so be it...
Surprisingly, a little more Muslim than the almost completely Hindu north, which was never really suborned by the armies of Islam. In this case, it's Omani Shi'a Islam that's the flavor of the day, strongest in the coastal cities which Oman once dominated directly. Today, Cinnasamrajya (the "Golden Kingdom") is trying to break into the computing sector with cheaply produced alternatives. If you squint, you can also see they've managed to restore the ancient causeway between mainland India and Sri Lanka for a road link.
If Lusitania was ever worried about Ocaso becoming too big to control, then its leaders would surely have balked at the situation in Arctica. Distance was once the chief pitfall for Bridain in its great Asian colony, although its port near the site of *Arkhangelsk on the White Sea offered a reliable inlet to this territory for most of the year. It was the invention of the railroad that eventually enabled Bridain to expand past the Urals and into the Siberian interior in earnest, eventually reaching the Panthalassic Ocean. As the climate warms, however, and more of Arctica becomes habitable year-round, the once fairly empty place, peopled mostly by convicts like some sort of chilly Australia, has become more habitable, and also more populous. People from Hanguk, Japan, and Seres in particular are more common than they once were. Old promises to integrate the dominion more fully into Bridain are stalling. Are the fine old Saxons in London really prepared to let their beloved country become mostly Asian? It's causing some second thoughts. It nevertheless remains the truth that Arctica comprises the vast majority of Bridain's territory and holds many of its natural resources. If London won't play fair, then they may yet make their own way...
In this timeline, China absorbed the bulk of the major steppe invasions of the mid-late middle ages, without anything like the Mongol conquest of Russia or the Middle East occurring. The ruling family of Seres is descended from such an empire, Turks in Chinese clothing once upon a time, though after centuries one can hardly tell the difference. The Middle Kingdom has always been adept at soaking up any foreign rulers who may presume to govern it, after all. Highly conservative, this government is feverishly upping the pace of modernization in its territory all the time, to occasional deleterious effect. Still, to many, no price is too dear for a national renaissance. Anything to undo the humiliation of losing half of the country to the temple-burning cross worshipers...
One might think that *Primorsky Krai would inevitably have had to become Bridish to keep eastern Arctica ticking, but gunboats in past centuries and economic deals in this one have sufficed to keep Hanguk cowed, and keep these warm-water ports very much open to their European buddies. This may cause resentment, but it is an old indignity, and most Koreans are happy just focusing on the increasing industrial and technological wealth of their country. Nearly one out of every four automobiles in the world is Korean, after all, and that has to count for something...
Has the dear, prospective foreign visitor heard the good news about Jīdū Tiānzi? No? That's alright. They will receive a comprehensive education during their time in the Heavenly Kingdom. Something like an even bigger and even crazier Taiping Rebellion happened here about fifty years ago, seizing onto a disaffected peasant underclass left behind by Seres' rapid industrialization and radicalizing them with a bizarre new form of Buddhist-tinged Christianity from the East Indies. The resulting conflict was perhaps the bloodiest in history, standing in a league apart from any other modern war, as no equivalent to the "World Wars" ever did transpire in this timeline. Curious things happen here, with religious heresies and political purges wrapped up into one, but the country is difficult for the foreign press to penetrate. As the original old guard of revolutionaries finally dies off, however, disaffection is roiling just under the surface. It seems interesting times lie in store for China in the near future once again.
Isolated by Bridish influence in Hanguk and by the continental power of Seres, Japan has mostly turned outward to the Panthalassic Ocean and is doing a good deal of infrastructure business in the Antilles. This timeline's equivalent of the Sengoku Jidai ended in the 1490s, leaving Japan unified and mostly at peace for much of the ensuing centuries.
Indisputably the big fish in the Indochinese pond, Yinghithai is beating the drum to lead its neighbors into forming a united front against Tiānguó. Slowly, they're starting to come around to its way of seeing things. Will the Thai kingdom dominate the region after China's Christian experiment is over and there's more space to breathe again? That remains to be seen.
After a period of Burgondian colonial dominance from the 18th - 20th centuries, Great Kuntala is once again independent and is flexing its muscles as the tollmaster of the Straits of Malacca. Modernization is happening in fits and starts, with their fellow Hindus in India doing a lot to finance the process. The colonial period was a sordid one, Burgondia never quite getting the knack of dealing with its Malay subjects, and to this day that country is not regarded fondly in these parts. Tales tell of strange things still to be found in the jungles of inner Kalimantan, leftovers of the old chemical and bio labs Burgondia once had in the area...
This tiny, ex-Spanian kingdom is actually the origin point for the sect that has seized control in southern China. This strain of that religion is a good deal milder than its big cousin, and Holy Cina is mostly content to let its population come around on their own terms, rather than aggressively educating them as is done in Tiānguó.
Upon independence in the 1960s, the former Burgondian colonies of the Panthalassic Ocean held a referendum on their political future. In the end, this arrangement prevailed, and the capital of the Panthalassic Union can be found here on the continent of Rubicrocea ("Red and Gold Land"). In fact, these provinces are very much running the show by dint of their size. Panthalassic democracy is still a flawed prospect, and many outlying territories are disaffected with how independence has treated them.
The local football mascot: the thylacine, a shy, marsupial predator, still lingering in the ancient forests of Tasmania.
The islands of Auteareaua are just one such disaffected region of the Panthalassic Union, and also the most powerful provinces outside of Rubicrocea. They have taken a leading role in saying "no" to the powers that be and arguing for a greater devolution of powers.
Funnily enough, Hawai'i is Shi'a Muslim, thanks to missionaries from far-off Oman. Apart from this rather significant foreign adoption, Hawai'i holds its old traditions close and remains leery of foreign powers after Francien interference in the early 20th century. It's a significant trade partner of Japan and Ocaso, but couldn't be described as "close" to either.

Description
(For some reason, the resolution when embedded on the DA webpage is cruddy... If you download the original file it should be in the intended resolution.)

An alternate history scenario I devised some time ago, which I posted over on alternatehistory.com as Huehuecoyotl. I've re-uploaded here for posterity. This timeline has a somewhat vague point of divergence from our own, sometime in the medieval period, wherein the Italian peninsula is struck by a local epidemic which leaves large parts of its heartland depopulated. Good Imperial Greeks from Hellas and Anatolia resettle it over the following decades. A little later, in the 9th century, Constantinople is conquered by the Rus' and the Empire's eastern territories gradually slough off, leaving Italy (once again) the heart of the Roman Empire. The eventual consequence is a somewhat more powerful Muslim world, albeit stronger in the west while having no success in the Indian subcontinent. The European powers that eventually coalesce are somewhat less globally dominant, resulting in a multipolar 21st century world with no defined superpowers and a lot of regional ones.

Since there was no room for the key to the annotations on the map itself, they are listed numerically below:

Uniting in the 18th century from a smattering of Lusitanian, Spanian, and Tolosan colonies, the Union of the South (its residents call themselves unienhos) swiftly expanded across the continent, à la Bolivar, absorbing smaller revolutionary movements in adjacent colonies. In spite of all odds (and some sectional trouble along the way), it persisted and blossomed during the 20th century into a world power par excellence, the nearest thing this timeline has to a true superpower. Today it's a neoliberal powerhouse and infernal meddler in all things around it, but one has to love the films, food, and music they make.
Starting around the turn of the 19th century, rumors of gold, coal and other mineral wealth in the sub-arctic regions prompted a rush for the high latitudes. Understandably, this mostly meant imperialist chicanery in *Canada and *Siberia, but in the spirit of the times, the young Union sailed south to plant the flag on the Antarctic Peninsula, mostly otherwise leaving it alone until modern times, when scientific expeditions became more common. This continent, which is here known as "Australia", remains a recognized unienho territory. Burgondia's "Australian Territory", comprising of Kerguelen, Heard, McDonald et al. is kind of a shabby imitation... but at least people can live there sometimes.
Vineland, a small collection of former Bridish colonies, has tried hard over the decades but now must come to terms with playing a permanent second fiddle to its big southern neighbor. Agriculture (legal and otherwise) is the big business with mining a close second, and the population is mostly mixed, Saxon, native, and east Asian (primarily Korean). Increasingly it is leaning on unienho cooperation in dealing with its northern neighbors. Not-so-secretly, it covets the canal zone, currently extranational territory after a spat with Atlantis in the 1980s.
One of these Muslim satellite states is not like the others. This Salian colony had a lot of setbacks relating to tropical diseases in its history, prompting the mother country to import "voluntary" settlers from its Sahel territories. Those of Salian descent have mostly left, leaving only the colony's name behind as a legacy. In this young republic, heavily influenced by the Three Sultanates, there's some debate over what to change its moniker to.
Settled in times of old by Andalusi refugees, like its other neighbors Qadisah leans on the Three Sultanates for protection from the cultural pressure of the infidels to the south.
Alzamarad has made a good name for itself on the international jewelry market over the years, and has tried (with moderate success) to leverage that wealth to improve its lot. By and large, the populace remains fairly poor, but surveys consistently find Alzamarad to be the most optimistic country in the Antilles.
Meanwhile, in the most pessimistic country in the Antilles, pirates run amok, harried by increasingly annoyed Vinelander coast guard units. A general lack of political structures left behind upon independence in this fellow former Bridish colony has prompted almost half a century of short presidencies, military putsches, and general instability. Intervention from the regional powers seems more likely by the day.
Though spanning north into the high arctic and west to the limits of the Bering Sea, more than 80% of the population of this former Salian colony lives somewhere in the vicinity of this number marker. Resource-rich Willemsland is another product of the race for the poles in the 19th century, but despite its size remains mostly a bit player on the Antillean stage.
Here one finds Ochibwa, one of only two native nations still to be found in the Antilles. Succeeding in playing the colonial powers against one another, by and large, it persisted long enough to win for itself a fairly lenient period of Burgondian dominion before shedding it during the 20th century. Today Ochibwa vocally champions the cause of Native Antilleans all over the continent, particularly in South Fluvia.
Potentially the strongest remnant of Burgondia's former colonial empire, New Campania (in fact, named after Champagne, not for the place in the Mezzogiorno which itself gave Champagne its name) is a relatively prosperous nation with a powerful financial sector and close links across the Atlantic. Once almost a nuclear power, it dismantled its program after the test ban treaties went into action in the late 1970s. Now that Atlantis has gone ahead and joined the nuclear club anyway, New Campania is feeling a little sour. And also a little scared, just like everyone else on the continent.
Once a closely-knit dominion of Lusitania, Ocaso opted for a Republic over a Kingdom and went its own way, among separatist sentiments at home and concerns in *Porto about the tail wagging the proverbial dog. Now a great regional power, it seeks a leading role in dealing with the Fluvia situation in the east and Atlantis in the south, though the other powers of the Antilles aren't terribly moved by these overtures.
Once united as a mighty dominion of Salia, independence treated Fluvia poorly. A polarizing first election season and stuffed ballot boxes led to a civil war. Fluvia split into a Conalist (communist) north, poor and sprawling, and a gloomy south with something akin to apartheid in store for its native inhabitants. Caught awkwardly between, there's a rogue province which neither will move upon for fear of provoking the other. This situation, which began in the 1990s, seems no closer to a resolution, and is, on balance, considered an embarrassment for the other powers of the continent.
Unlike its sister Ocaso on the other side of North Antillea, Sacramenta remains a closely welded dominion and Kingdom within the Lusitanian crown. This flourishing country has a healthy manufacturing sector in its north and an extant plantation culture in the south (with all the uncomfortable history that implies).
As if taking a cue from their neighbors in Fluvia, the former Burgondian colonies of the Great Lakes also threw out their capitalist class, albeit opting for anarcho-syndicalism rather than Conalism. To the surprise (and apprehension) of its neighbors, it hasn't collapsed yet, and is in fact doing pretty alright, aside from some tensions between the urban workers and the collective farmers to be found within its territory. Occasionally, the Communes trade fishy looks with their big, red neighbor to the west; trust is at a premium in these parts.
The so-called "Land of Hope", this quiet peninsula was left aside by the Lusitanians decades ago for refugees of violence in China, whose descendants comprise a plurality of its population, with the remainder mostly being mixed. Dirt poor, but it beats being caught in civil wars back home.
Centuries ago, the P'urépecha of Michoacán fought the long-dead Mexica of Tenochtitlan to a stand-still, eventually reducing their proud Triple Alliance to a tributary and gradually becoming the hegemon of the region which Europeans would come to call Atlantis. Then came the Francien with guns and horses, subjugating, but not truly conquering, Tzintzuntzan. Christian ways were brought, though not necessarily absorbed, only making surface-level changes to the old rites of the region. A bloody war for independence wracked Atlantis for almost a decade in the 18th century, ending with the natives reasserting their right to self-rule once again. Ever since, this rather rowdy and militaristic power has gone its own way and has scared the hell out of everybody in the neighborhood in the process.
Somehow even scarier is the Kingdom of the Conscience, once a sleepy Francien colony, now an island held in the iron grip of a drug cartel turned narco-death cult. Originally a fairly ordinary republic with a mestizo population and a plantation economy, drug traffic from the Isles of Frie and other internal factors led to something of a collapse in recent years. Its elite alternately chase the next high or the "Great Awakening" of all beings, while the populace remains scared almost literally to death. Union of the South bombing action pending in 3, 2, 1...
Just over the channel in Hispaniola, the Republic of Francisca, a close cousin to the inhabitants of the blighted kingdom to the west, watches developments in concern while the tourism money dries up.
Gutlan's little Caribbean getaway, mercifully protected from these increasingly unfriendly seas by patrols of the unienho navy.
Don't let the name fool you - the Egyptian government in Fustat is running this show. The triple-sultan, Caliph, and Commander of the Faithful dwells here most of the time, though summer homes in Aghmat and Tunis can also be held to his name. While the Caliph makes nice speeches and visits foreign courts, the Chamber of Emirs keeps things moving in fact, juggling countless balls in Africa, Europe, and the Antilles. Without question, the Three Sultanates are the big fish of the Sunni Muslim world, and probably a close second to the Union of the South in terms of global reach and military power. The two powers are not necessarily ideologically opposed, but proximity breeds friction, as is the case in the Muslim states of South Antillea. As long as the Conalist scourge remains active in Africa, however, an alliance of convenience must continue to exist.
Attached to the Sultanates in all but name, these Saharan and Sahelian nations seen here exist at the core of the Sultanates' resource extraction system, bringing much needed mineral resources and cheap labor. Around this number marker, especially, are found their most reliable sources of uranium...
Squeezed between the spheres of influence of the Three Sultanates and Aden, accommodations have been made to keep the Arabized Nubian nation of Al-Urdi (un)comfortably outside of both. That said, the Arabs along the Nile in the north long for the wealth and power of Egypt, while the Cushitic and Nilotic peoples of the south wonder if they wouldn't be better off with Aden.
The Roman Empire never gave much serious consideration to colonization, absorbed with European affairs as it was, and not geographically well positioned besides. Nevertheless, in a corner of West Africa looked over by Franciè and Burgondia, they found a prospective stopping post for ships and an inlet for Antillean and African trade. In this they didn't particularly succeed, the ports of Theotokia (named for the Virgin, naturally) failing to draw ships that other harbors in the region weren't already enticing. Independent today, mostly due to disinterest from Rome (which still holds the nearby Cape Verde islands), Theotokia is nevertheless still highly dependent on its economic connections to Italia.
Called by some the dark horse of Africa, the Conalist state of Binin is growing economically and in population at the fastest rate of any nation in the continent. Despite the mostly similar political philosophies held in their capitals, there are odd looks between Binin and the UFCC, the latter finding the market allowances of its northern comrade not quite in the spirit of the great communist project. Population projections for the coming century also make the UFCC nervous, because it's believed by some that their country will soon be outnumbered by the teeming masses of Binin...
In the central African state of Tshao, a Conalist rebellion burns in the country's southwest, threatening to overburden the country at any time. Only proximity to Binin stays the hand of the Three Sultanates, which are seeking more creative ways of dissolving this particular crisis...
In other times, the state of Felicienn, true to its name, would be quite happy with its relative stability and positive economic motion. With two communist juggernauts on either side, though, this country is practically screaming for help from the Union of the South and the Three Sultanates. Anything, to keep the property values in this neighborhood from dropping any more!
Joining Felicienn in its discomfort is Lwoia, bristling with cruise missiles and ready at any moment to push the UFCC out of the African Great Lakes region, if only the prospect of nuclear annihilation wasn't stopping them. This little kingdom bides its time and welds itself to Aden's economic sphere.
As its name might betray, this Sultanate had its start across the Bab-el-Mandeb as an Arab principality. After absorbing the Horn of Africa and centuries of intermingling, however, the African part of the sultanate's much faster growth has caused an overall change to a Cushitic sort of character, even in the original Arab heartland. Scientifically advanced and economically mighty, the southern coast of Aden's Somalian provinces are host to multiple space centers, and discoveries of fossilized human ancestors in its highlands have amazed the scientific community. It heads an economic union of East African states including Lwoia, Ziwa, and Zania among other minor members.
The great red goliath itself, the UFCC. African history in the 20th century was shaped by the rise of this state. Inspired by the writings of economic philosopher Agosto Conal, the Lusitanian colonies of southern Africa fought for their independence as a united front, and stuck together after the dust had settled. This has proven anything but an easy prospect, and internal regional politics in the UFCC (Unián Feteral de Comunas Conalistas) are a circus of unmitigated proportions. Regardless, it has mostly managed to direct its energy outward and remain stable since the 1940s. As new revolutions have been inspired worldwide in the past few decades by its success, however, the UFCC has continued to doubt its future, and a general relaxing of central government authority has made it an open question whether it will go on as one country, or as several...
As much as Zania’s president-for-life would like for it to be East Africa's greatest power, for now this nation is hitched to Aden's wagon, and is unlikely to come loose anytime soon. Zania, a tinpot dictatorship traditionally, has been liberalizing, but has little more than ecotourism and a modest navy going for it. They blame the communists for their misfortune, naturally.
Correction: the communists and Oman.
We arrive on European shores in Lusitania, historically one of the strongest colonial powers of the continent, second only to Burgondia. Much of North Antillea, southern Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia were once part of their sphere, but by the 1960s, with the independence of Ocaso, the bulk of their dominions were gone. In a sense, however, they are better off than Burgondia in the aftermath, maintaining strong links with most of their former colonies and retaining Sacramenta as a kingdom within the Lusitanian crown. The big, black marks on its legacy include a rather active role in the Atlantic slave trade, and bringing about the current primacy of the UFCC in Africa, which has bred resentment toward Lusitania on that continent. Its one-time rival Spania is today fused at the hip with Lusitania, the two nations and the bulk of their former possessions loosely aligned in the "Iberophone Community".
The tide of this timeline's Reconquista ended, functionally, with a stalemate in the 14th century, the armies of the Maghreb securing for all time the survival of al-Andalus in the form of the emirates of Tariqiyya and Fudimiriyya. These small kingdoms have never escaped the shadow of their benefactor, but are mostly happy with their lot. With the age of religious intolerance long gone, there are strong links with the Christian nations of Iberia, and families even straddle both sides of the border. The Three Sultanates are tolerating discussions about these two countries entering the Iberophone Community... But with conditions.
After entering the colonial game and flopping in the 1600s, Tolosa receded forever to the status of the poorest and least powerful nation of Gaul, while Franciè and Burgondia went from strength to strength. Nowadays a quiet social democracy with some quite poor rural areas, it has led calls for some form of Gallic Union between itself and its northern neighbors due to their similar languages and shared history. Of course, the fact that it by far has the most to gain, and they the most to lose, has led these calls, for the most part, to fall upon deaf ears. Should that fall through, of course, Tolosa is prepared to make the same plea to the Iberophone Community...
It follows logically that Europe's four nuclear club members (Lusitania, Burgondia, Bridain and Litoania) are also considered its great powers. In western Europe, Burgondia clearly leads this bunch, now as in previous centuries. Once the master of northeastern North America, parts of West Africa and the East Indies, and nearly all of Oceania, it was a premier mercantile and naval power in the Atlantic, and Europe's most populous territory, for a time. Aside from a relatively clean disengagement from the Americas, however, its colonial legacy elsewhere has left something of a stain on national pride, leading to a lot of soul-searching in this century. Though no longer a great power outside of its own region, it still leads the continent in science and culture.
This island is a good deal more Saxon than OTL, and shares a lot linguistically with nearby Salia. England remained, as always, the predominant force of the region, with a more or less permanent union of Great Britain arriving in the 16th century. At first focusing its endeavors in Ireland and northern South Antillea, its trade interests in the White Sea region eventually found it setting up shop there and focusing on North Asia as its link to the East. Although it's diminished, it still controls the most territory outside of Europe out of any European power and there are strong *Anglophone communities on a handful of continents.
The story here is depressingly familiar. Let's move on.
Issland is happily divorced from the continuing troubles in Scandinavia. Sort of like in OTL, they are not poised to be a major force, even regionally, and have mostly turned inward as a result. But they have Greenland as a bonus, so I guess that's nice.
Welding the Low Countries into one nation was never an easy process, but by the early 1660s, the situation had sort of stuck. An economic powerhouse thenceforward, Salia once had colonies on four continents, but even today it remains the strongest country in Europe outside of the "big four".
CITROM (abbreviated for something along the lines of "Central European Economic Treaty Organization" in local parlance) has surprised the continent by strengthening rather than weakening over time. Historically a stomping ground for other powers after the dissolution of the Karling Empire, with the most recent conflict on its territory being in the 1890s, a desire for common defense and economic parity has driven these nations together. One could almost call it the closest thing this timeline has seen to "German unification", if thoroughly Slavic Sorbia wasn't also part of the show, and if Salia wasn’t absolutely disinterested. Nevertheless, a "closer union" is not necessarily out of the picture in the coming years.
It's worth focusing on this little member-state of CITROM momentarily. Developing in a manner analogous to OTL's Hanseatic League, the city-states of northern Germany formed a powerful trade consortium which challenged Bridish White Sea ambitions for a long time, and also held a near-trade monopoly in the Caribbean for a few decades in the 1600s. Now politically united, they still hold disproportionate power in CITROM thanks to owning the Kiel Canal and all of Germany's best ports, though Bavaria is increasingly acting as a counterweight.
It seems a little absurd on the face of it that the Roman Empire, allegedly the oldest continuous political entity on the planet, could not be one of Europe's great powers. This has been true, however, since at least the 11th century, and though a united Italian peninsula is nothing to sneeze at, being challenged by the Three Sultanates from across the sea and by powers in Gaul and Iberia always kept it constrained. The peninsula these days is a sort of Greek almost from the Po to Sicily, but the Latin influence on the language and culture is strong. There is some sort of irony to be found in this, given that the Rigatul Ruman, a Vlach state (thus speaking a Romance language) resides in the heart of ancient Hellas, but this scarcely registers to this timeline's inhabitants. Roman-ness, in the 21st century just like the dozens preceding it, remains a flexible thing. The Emperor resides in Rome (of course) but the Senate is in Ravenna, and these days (much like in the days before Augustus) holds the real power in the Empire again.
Actually inhabited by Oghuz Turks since the 1200s, and Buddhist ones at that.
The Avars have lived on and now reside in this rather comfortable real estate. The Balkans are fairly quiet and peaceful in this timeline.
Hey, look, this one's name is still the same. The centuries have not sufficed to extricate the Bulgarians from the former Roman province of Moesia, but they never did reach quite the same heights with an aggressive Ruskia on their front doorstep.
"danube legions strong come to graecia! italy greeks fake, vlachs real romans 1000 year!" - A comment on this timeline's equivalent of YouTube, probably.
After evicting the Romans from Constantinople in the 860s, the Rus' clung stubbornly to their new possession. The Themes of Anatolia became minor military despotates which resisted fiercely for a long time, but given the choice between the nominally Christianizing Rus' and the encroaching Abbasid Caliphate, they eventually swallowed their pride, with the last, Trebizond, surrendering to the Rus' in 1077. Ruskia once expanded into the Balkans as well, but these European conquests were only ever ephemeral, and by the 1700s were gone forever. Ruskia remains a minor regional power.
In the east of Europe lies great Litoania. Christianized in the 1200s by English missionaries, a lack of strong powers in European Russia or on the Eurasian Steppe enabled its continual expansion east. Litoanian rule has always been laissez faire, its tolerance of non-Christian minorities (Muslims in the northern Caucasus, Jews and Buddhists on the steppe) has enabled it to weld some rather disparate territories to itself. Today a federal republic and Europe's largest country, the vast plains of European Russia, along with bountiful mineral resources, have enabled Litoania to remain bounds ahead in population and technology for much of Europe's modern history. Undoubtedly, it is today Europe's greatest power, capable of standing alongside the Three Sultanates, the Union of the South, and the Hindee Raajy. It’s also home to a near-majority of the world’s Jewish population, which resides in great numbers along the Volga.
This Litoanian republic by the side of the Black Sea is called "Magyarország".
Since a major local war in the 1930s, Scandinavia has been picking up the pieces. Although Litoania and Bridain stepped in then to put an end to the religious-ethnic conflict taking place there, it has never quite finished recovering. The situation with two rival governments sitting in opposite ends of Sverga is sadly fairly common for this region, considered the most unstable in Europe.
Gutlan remains an island of stability in Scandinavia, and today is famous for its high-quality educational TV programs for young children.
Suomi has always been the strongest power in this area, with the last period of Nordic domination there being far back in the Middle Ages. It has alternatively fallen into the Litoanian or Bridish orbit during the modern era, but now is trying to exert its own weight and finally put a lid on the Swedish situation.
All told, somewhat bigger and more populous than our Armenia. This one is still under the Bagratuni dynasty and is a flawed (but progressing) democracy.
Technically the successor state to the Abbasid Empire. The last Abbasid caliph was ousted in 1922, leading to the transition of their rump empire into a social democracy, à la OTL Sweden. The pretenders to the Abbasid caliphate remain in the Hedjaz on a healthy pension, sighing wistfully over what used to be. With the Abbasid decline from relevance, the de facto and de jure leader of the Sunni world remains the triple-sultan in Fustat. The UASR (United Arab Social Republic) is about half-Sunni, half-Shi'a, but sectarian tension is rare. Currently, the UASR's big project is to (finally!) construct the Suez Canal with Three Sultanates cooperation and do away with the aging set of Nile-dependent canals currently doing the job.
Although closely linked to the Three Sultanates, Hedjaz's distinction as the guardian of the holy places affords it a little more independence than many of the Sultanates' close neighbors. It's among the more conservative nations of the Muslim world, but by no means quite as extreme as OTL Saudi Arabia, thanks to the moderating influence of the UASR universities where most Hedjazi nobility wind up for their education.
Aden's eternal rival for control of the Indian Ocean trade, Oman, has not entered the 21st century quite as strongly. Although still a going force and occasional nuisance for its neighbor, it has lost its influence in southern India and much of East Asia which once gave it such great leverage. Nevertheless, it still holds onto Zanzibar and has strong links with a few European nations and the Panthalassic Ocean. The Qarmatians held the country for a long time in the Middle Ages, gradually eroding the hold of the Ibadi imams and leaving modern Oman a Shi'a state. Accordingly, it's a little more conservative than OTL, especially in contrast with spacefaring Aden, but it hardly shuns progress.
By far the biggest change in Southwest Asia over the last few generations is the rise of Erān into regional prominence. Already unified and relatively stable by the start of the 20th century, the expansion of Erāni companies into Central Asia has opened economic doors for the Shi'a empire which have enabled it to politically dominate the minor Turkic states of the region as well. Greater control of its own national industries, particularly oil, as well as a general decline of the surrounding powers, has allowed this seeming miracle which has set Erān to be one of the fastest-growing economic forces of the 21st century. Although it would never admit it publicly, due to the tense climate surrounding Atlantis's nuclear tests which flaunted international law in recent years, Erān longs to seal the deal and become a great power by joining the nuclear club in its own right.
The defection by plebiscite of this former Litoanian state (mostly Shi'a Muslim) to Erān in 2008 was the event that made armchair geographers and analysts the world over sit up and wonder whether old and storied Persia was on the rise once again. 5 years on, it's still nominally independent, not quite yet ready to integrate fully into the Erāni political framework.
Too small to resist the Erāni cultural orbit, but too Buddhist to stomach integrating outright. The Persians and Pashtuns have a common, Aryan destiny, says the Erāni government in Ispahan...
Given the choice between a Shi'a rock and a Hindu hard place, the Buddhist population of Kashimeera will reluctantly choose the latter.
It's anyone's guess as to how long the republics of Central Asia will maintain their independence. Although not of Iranian descent, they are sparsely populated and contain potential untapped resources.
Still by far the great power of the subcontinent, the Hindee Raajy has lost some of its luster in recent years. Despite herculean efforts, the vast bulk of its population remains rather poor, and certain regional magnates are becoming increasingly uncooperative. Still, there are plans in store for any unfortunate eventualities in the capital at *Agra. Big plans indeed...
The Raja of Bengal is getting a little too big for his britches. This heavily industrialized region is starting to throw its weight around within the union and forcing the central government (for now) to play along to its tune.
This Conalist rebellion may soon force the Hindee Raajy to step in directly. And if Dhakshina becomes another autonomous region of that nation in the process, then so be it...
Surprisingly, a little more Muslim than the almost completely Hindu north, which was never really suborned by the armies of Islam. In this case, it's Omani Shi'a Islam that's the flavor of the day, strongest in the coastal cities which Oman once dominated directly. Today, Cinnasamrajya (the "Golden Kingdom") is trying to break into the computing sector with cheaply produced alternatives. If you squint, you can also see they've managed to restore the ancient causeway between mainland India and Sri Lanka for a road link.
If Lusitania was ever worried about Ocaso becoming too big to control, then its leaders would surely have balked at the situation in Arctica. Distance was once the chief pitfall for Bridain in its great Asian colony, although its port near the site of *Arkhangelsk on the White Sea offered a reliable inlet to this territory for most of the year. It was the invention of the railroad that eventually enabled Bridain to expand past the Urals and into the Siberian interior in earnest, eventually reaching the Panthalassic Ocean. As the climate warms, however, and more of Arctica becomes habitable year-round, the once fairly empty place, peopled mostly by convicts like some sort of chilly Australia, has become more habitable, and also more populous. People from Hanguk, Japan, and Seres in particular are more common than they once were. Old promises to integrate the dominion more fully into Bridain are stalling. Are the fine old Saxons in London really prepared to let their beloved country become mostly Asian? It's causing some second thoughts. It nevertheless remains the truth that Arctica comprises the vast majority of Bridain's territory and holds many of its natural resources. If London won't play fair, then they may yet make their own way...
In this timeline, China absorbed the bulk of the major steppe invasions of the mid-late middle ages, without anything like the Mongol conquest of Russia or the Middle East occurring. The ruling family of Seres is descended from such an empire, Turks in Chinese clothing once upon a time, though after centuries one can hardly tell the difference. The Middle Kingdom has always been adept at soaking up any foreign rulers who may presume to govern it, after all. Highly conservative, this government is feverishly upping the pace of modernization in its territory all the time, to occasional deleterious effect. Still, to many, no price is too dear for a national renaissance. Anything to undo the humiliation of losing half of the country to the temple-burning cross worshipers...
One might think that *Primorsky Krai would inevitably have had to become Bridish to keep eastern Arctica ticking, but gunboats in past centuries and economic deals in this one have sufficed to keep Hanguk cowed, and keep these warm-water ports very much open to their European buddies. This may cause resentment, but it is an old indignity, and most Koreans are happy just focusing on the increasing industrial and technological wealth of their country. Nearly one out of every four automobiles in the world is Korean, after all, and that has to count for something...
Has the dear, prospective foreign visitor heard the good news about Jīdū Tiānzi? No? That's alright. They will receive a comprehensive education during their time in the Heavenly Kingdom. Something like an even bigger and even crazier Taiping Rebellion happened here about fifty years ago, seizing onto a disaffected peasant underclass left behind by Seres' rapid industrialization and radicalizing them with a bizarre new form of Buddhist-tinged Christianity from the East Indies. The resulting conflict was perhaps the bloodiest in history, standing in a league apart from any other modern war, as no equivalent to the "World Wars" ever did transpire in this timeline. Curious things happen here, with religious heresies and political purges wrapped up into one, but the country is difficult for the foreign press to penetrate. As the original old guard of revolutionaries finally dies off, however, disaffection is roiling just under the surface. It seems interesting times lie in store for China in the near future once again.
Isolated by Bridish influence in Hanguk and by the continental power of Seres, Japan has mostly turned outward to the Panthalassic Ocean and is doing a good deal of infrastructure business in the Antilles. This timeline's equivalent of the Sengoku Jidai ended in the 1490s, leaving Japan unified and mostly at peace for much of the ensuing centuries.
Indisputably the big fish in the Indochinese pond, Yinghithai is beating the drum to lead its neighbors into forming a united front against Tiānguó. Slowly, they're starting to come around to its way of seeing things. Will the Thai kingdom dominate the region after China's Christian experiment is over and there's more space to breathe again? That remains to be seen.
After a period of Burgondian colonial dominance from the 18th - 20th centuries, Great Kuntala is once again independent and is flexing its muscles as the tollmaster of the Straits of Malacca. Modernization is happening in fits and starts, with their fellow Hindus in India doing a lot to finance the process. The colonial period was a sordid one, Burgondia never quite getting the knack of dealing with its Malay subjects, and to this day that country is not regarded fondly in these parts. Tales tell of strange things still to be found in the jungles of inner Kalimantan, leftovers of the old chemical and bio labs Burgondia once had in the area...
This tiny, ex-Spanian kingdom is actually the origin point for the sect that has seized control in southern China. This strain of that religion is a good deal milder than its big cousin, and Holy Cina is mostly content to let its population come around on their own terms, rather than aggressively educating them as is done in Tiānguó.
Upon independence in the 1960s, the former Burgondian colonies of the Panthalassic Ocean held a referendum on their political future. In the end, this arrangement prevailed, and the capital of the Panthalassic Union can be found here on the continent of Rubicrocea ("Red and Gold Land"). In fact, these provinces are very much running the show by dint of their size. Panthalassic democracy is still a flawed prospect, and many outlying territories are disaffected with how independence has treated them.
The local football mascot: the thylacine, a shy, marsupial predator, still lingering in the ancient forests of Tasmania.
The islands of Auteareaua are just one such disaffected region of the Panthalassic Union, and also the most powerful provinces outside of Rubicrocea. They have taken a leading role in saying "no" to the powers that be and arguing for a greater devolution of powers.
Funnily enough, Hawai'i is Shi'a Muslim, thanks to missionaries from far-off Oman. Apart from this rather significant foreign adoption, Hawai'i holds its old traditions close and remains leery of foreign powers after Francien interference in the early 20th century. It's a significant trade partner of Japan and Ocaso, but couldn't be described as "close" to either.